AS featured in Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500 LIST
Story Before Telling
A free 10-minute story exercise to uncover the wisdom in your experience — and use AI to share it with impact.
Everyone's telling you to do more storytelling. But if you skip the story part and jump straight to the telling, you're just generating more noise. This free exercise teaches you the framework I use with every client — from Fortune 100 leaders to Stanford freshmen — to find the meaning, wisdom, and emotion that captures attention, creates connection, and inspires meaningful action.
Storytelling is the hottest skill in the age of AI. But almost everyone is doing it backwards.
“Storytelling” is having a real moment right now.
You can't open LinkedIn without a think piece about it. The Wall Street Journal is covering the rise of "Chief Storytellers." Your CEO mentioned it at the last all-hands.
Netflix, OpenAI, and Anthropic are paying up to $775,000 for storytelling roles — and job listings with "storyteller" in the title have doubled on LinkedIn in the past year alone.
So you do what any smart professional does — you turn to AI. The LinkedIn post. The team presentation. The polished pitch.
But it comes out... fine. Forgettable. Generic.
Here’s why:
You skipped the story and went straight to the telling.
The telling is the output — AI can help with that.
But the story — the reflection, the meaning-making, the wisdom — that’s the part that captures attention, creates connection, and inspires action.
And that’s the part only you can do.
After nearly 20 years of doing this work, the pattern is always the same: the people who take even a brief pause to do the story work first create connection and impact that actually lasts.
The ones who skip it? They stay stuck. They sound like everyone else.
This free exercise is your first rep back at the story gym.
It flips the sequence — story first, then telling — so you have something real before you go anywhere near AI.
👀 What You’ll Find Inside:
✓ A powerful career story prompt — designed to surface wisdom you didn't know you had
✓ Guided follow-up questions to go beneath the surface
✓ The Three Elements of an Effective Story — the neuroscience behind why stories are 22x more memorable than facts, and how to use it
✓ The Story Foundation framework — used by leaders at Fortune 500 companies
✓ A ready-to-use AI prompt for LinkedIn
🧭 The Time Is Now
Personal storytelling is finally being recognized as essential leadership infrastructure — and it's about time.
For years, I've been saying that the real power of storytelling isn't in the telling. It's in the story — the reflection, the meaning-making, the human connection that no AI can replicate.
Now the rest of the world is catching up. Even Inc. Magazine thinks so! I'm honored to have been named to their 2026 Female Founders 500 for this work. To celebrate, I'm sharing the exercise that kicks off everything I do with my clients.
The Story Foundation is one of my core frameworks — I've used it with leaders at Activision Blizzard, Pinterest, and Deloitte, and with hundreds of individuals navigating career transitions, building businesses, and stepping into new chapters.
It's a starting point. And it's yours, free.
These Frameworks Have Helped Hundreds of Leaders Find — and Tell — Their Most Powerful Stories
“Liz’s material is the best on storytelling I’ve ever used. Not only did it help me at work, but it helped me tell better bedtime stories to my children. The more people who learn from Liz, the better.”
— Ed, Microsoft
“She taught me to delve into the emotions, changes, and lessons behind the numbers. Her guidance not only improved my storytelling skills but also boosted my confidence.”
— Stephen, Director of Product
"I'm a visual learner and really appreciated her frameworks that provided a clear roadmap to explore my story. Since working with Liz I've been able to confidently share my story on podcasts, newsletters, my website and live conversations."
— Drew, Values Coach
Hi, I’m Liz 🧭
I’m a Story Coach and Consultant who helps ambitious professionals and innovative teams navigate pivotal moments through personal storytelling — transforming “what now?” into “this way forward.”
For nearly 20 years, I shaped human-driven narratives for organizations like Airbnb, the Obama 2012 campaign, even a Bravo dating show (ask me about that wild summer!)
Now, through my Narrative Navigation framework and workshops with organizations like Pinterest, Stanford, and Deloitte — and hundreds of professionals through my coaching practice — I help clients use their stories to clarify their vision, communicate it confidently, and inspire meaningful action.
I was honored to be named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500 and featured in Fast Company and Business Insider, sharing how personal storytelling is changing how we lead and connect.
I’m so excited to help you find your stories, too!
Your Stories Already Hold the Answers
Right now, there's a story inside you — a challenge you navigated, a moment that revealed something about who you really are. You've been carrying the wisdom all along. You just haven't had the right framework to unlock it.
Here's what I know after nearly 20 years of this work: your story skills are innate, but they're atrophying. Every time you let AI draft your message without doing the thinking first, every time you default to bullet points instead of real connection, that muscle gets a little weaker. And in a world where everyone's content sounds the same, that skill is the thing that will set you apart.
This exercise is your first rep. Ten minutes to rebuild the muscle, practice the framework, and walk away with a powerful story you can use right away — in an interview, a team meeting, or a post.
It's a starting point. The deeper work is better with people — in coaching, in community, in real conversation. But this will give you a story worth starting with.